News

The dust has now begun to settle following the Autumn Budget and the impact it has on SEIS and EIS reliefs. The budget coincided with the 21 st birthday for EIS relief, which has become an essential component of the UK investment eco-system. There had been concerns in some quarters that there could be a dramatic curtailment on some of the benefits of the reliefs but on an initial view, nothing too disruptive has been introduced. Indeed the Government might be seen to have given a vote of confidence in SEIS/EIS by increasing the annual investment limit from £1...

Tribunal Fees The big news in employment law in 2017 is that the Supreme Court (on the application of Unison the trade union) has declared that fees in the Employment Tribunal and Employment Appeals tribunal are unlawful. The story goes something like this: prior to July 2013 employees and former employees could make claims to an Employment Tribunal without charge. In July 2013 the Government introduced a fee system whereby claimants had to pay a fee to submit a claim and another to go ahead with a full hearing, the laudable rationale being that the introduction of fees would significantly...

It has been a very busy period for our clients and our firm since I last wrote to you in June. That seems like such a long time ago when I was wondering if the outcome of the UK general election would leave us “strong and stable” or “weak and wobbly”. I am afraid our politicians have let us down and they have opted for the latter. We have a weak UK government which is now playing a weak hand in Brexit negotiations as the rest of the world looks on. The threat of military action on the world stage...

Online fraud is on the rise, and solicitors, with transactional money passing through their accounts, are an obvious target. When fraud takes place, it can have enormous and traumatic impact on the individuals defrauded. The most obvious culprits, the fraudsters themselves, are usually long gone, their cash safely withdrawn or transferred to a jurisdiction where the money cannot be traced. In practical terms, they are beyond reach. So who else is there to blame? The obvious targets are either the banks, or the solicitors themselves. A landmark decision in the English courts in 2016, Purrunsing, found in favour of the...